Ant-Man and the Wasp is about as far from the emotional and physical devastation of Avengers: Infinity War as you could get. There’s no mention of Thanos, destruction, or doom in the film’s trailers — but there is an ant playing the drums.

So how does Ant-Man and the Wasp take the events of Infinity War into account? On the set visit for the Ant-Man sequel, director Peyton Reed addressed that giant elephant (Giant…Man?) in the room.

When it was released in 2015, Ant-Man existed in its own corner of the Marvel universe, barely brushing shoulders with the Avengers except for some lip service and one funny Falcon cameo. Now its sequel seems to be maintaining that isolation from the rest of the MCU.

On /Film’s set visit for Ant-Man and the Wasp, Reed addressed how Ant-Man and the Wasp can exist in a universe that gets progressively smaller. When asked how the sequel ties in with Infinity War, Reed responded:

“We definitely had to deal with the ramifications post-Civil War. That was crucial to Scott [Lang] and crucial to Hope [van Dyne]. I mean, it really is fundamental in the jumping-off point about what’s going on between the two of them at the start of this movie. Outside of that, what I’m really happy about is we’re free to tell sort of our freestanding story.

Once we establish that as the leaping-off point, this thing is going on over here with huge personal stakes and huge other stakes that are really separate of what’s going on with Infinity War. So that is something that was really, really appealing to me. We have enough stuff to track in this movie without having to keep abreast of what’s going on in that.”

Since Ant-Man and the Wasp comes right off the events of Captain America: Civil War, it’s no surprise that’s the Marvel film that plays the biggest role in setting up the Ant-Man sequel. Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is on house arrest following the deal he took after being arrested for teaming up with Steve Rogers. But that is simply the “jumping-off point,” as Reed says. The rest of the film stays true to the spirit of the first Ant-Man by telling a standalone story that won’t touch on the rest of the MCU. Or will it?

Is an Avengers Connection in The (Quantum) Realm of Possibilities?

Reed emphasizes the “personal stakes” of the sequel and how “separate” it is from Infinity War. Which flies in the face of rumors that Ant-Man would connect to Infinity War in some major way. Theories have abounded that Ant-Man and the Wasp‘s venture into the Quantum Realm could set the stage for Avengers 4. The Quantum Realm, which according to Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) is a dimension “where all concepts of time and space become irrelevant,” will definitely play a large role in the film with the appearance of Michelle Pfeiffer‘s Janet van Dyne, who was presumed dead in realm. Theories suggest that Ant-Man and his ability to move in and out of the Quantum Realm could enable the Avengers to time travel and potentially rewrite history.

So if we’re going by Reed’s statement, it seems like on the surface, Ant-Man and the Wasp won’t be connected to Avengers: Infinity War. But Reed is vague enough about the two films’ ties that this might not be the case. There’s still room in his statement to infer that while most of the movie might not connect, Infinity War could still have some impact later in the film.

We’ll have to wait until Ant-Man and the Wasp hits theaters on July 6, 2018 to find out.

Scott Lang is grappling with the consequences of his choices as both a superhero and a father. Approached by Hope van Dyne and Dr. Hank Pym, Lang must once again don the Ant-Man suit and fight alongside the Wasp. The urgent mission soon leads to secret revelations from the past as the dynamic duo finds itself in an epic battle against a powerful new enemy.